Some whimsical wanderings through the worlds of words, writing, and old movies and TV -- along with some selected short subjects.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Words, words and more words

Those of you who read this blog regularly (OK, I know there’s at least one of you) might be wondering why I haven’t posted my annual account of my February trip to Brooklyn for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.

There’s a very good reason for this.

The tournament has been moved from February to March – specifically, March 18 to 20 this year.

But it isn’t as if words didn’t keep me busy last month.

Early in the month, I survived another stint as a judge for my community’s annual spelling bee on live TV. Nothing major went wrong, though at the beginning the camera showed me while the other judge’s name was announced and vice versa. (Then again, I suppose the other misidentified judge might see that as a major problem….)

A couple of weeks later, I was a member of my former full-time employer’s team in a Scrabble tournament. We were supposed to collaborate in putting together high-scoring boards. We finished fifth out of 29 teams. One of the winning teams had help from a kid who has been in the spelling bee twice. I suppose there’s some significance to that, and perhaps one of these days I might spend one 40,000th of a second pondering it.

Finally, as I kind of warm-up for Brooklyn, I competed in a crossword event that raised money for a charity. There were three winners, not including me. The top guy has been a big finisher in the Brooklyn event; the woman who finished third is someone I have outscored at that event. I suppose there’s some significance to that, and perhaps one of these days I might spend one 100,000th of a nanosecond pondering it.

Freelance work for two clients also kept me busy.

In the weeks to come, I hope to report on my latest excursion into Brooklyn. Besides that, the local cinephile society comes out of hibernation for its spring season.